Arachnids · Ixodida · Ixodidae

Kennel Tick

Rhipicephalus sanguineus

Not Evaluated

It has not yet been assessed against the IUCN criteria. See full glossary

The brown dog tick, dog tick or kennel tick is a blood-feeding ectoparasitic arthropod of the family Ixodidae, which attacks dogs above all, although it can also parasitise other domestic and wild animals and even, occasionally, humans, although other warm-blooded animals are rarely bitten.

Size

3 cm – 12 cm

Diet

Carnivore

Feeds mainly on other animals.

Social structure

Solitary

Lives and hunts alone, joining others only to breed.

Sighting difficulty

Unknown

Temperate forestCarnivore Solitary Temperate forest Arachnid

8countries1same family

Fun facts

GeneralIt completes its cycle indoors and carries canine ehrlichiosis.
It is the only tick that has managed to become a household pest: it lays several thousand eggs in cracks around the house and can infest a whole home.
In some regions it also transmits Rocky Mountain spotted fever to people.
With the warming climate it is extending its range into northern Europe.
It is probably the most widespread tick in the world, and the only one able to complete its whole cycle indoors. That is why household infestations are persistent and hard to clear.
It is a three-host tick: each stage drops off to moult and then seeks another host, but all three can be on the same dog at once.
Its distribution follows that of people and their dogs, not that of any particular ecosystem.
It transmits canine monocytic ehrlichiosis and several babesioses to dogs, and to people Mediterranean spotted fever and, in the south-western United States and northern Mexico, Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
That fever has sustained an epidemic in tribal communities in Arizona, with more than 500 cases and 28 deaths since 2003.
Its taxonomy remains unresolved: it is treated as a species complex, and some of the older records probably refer to other species.